The inventive concept relates to semiconductor devices and methods of manufacturing the same.
There is an ever increasing demand for highly integrated semiconductor devices that offer excellent performance and/or which can be manufactured at low cost. However, the degree to which a memory device is integrated affects its cost of manufacture. Semiconductor memory devices are made up of a plurality of unit memory cells and so, the integration density of a semiconductor memory device may correspond to the number of cells per unit area. That is, in the case of a conventional two-dimensional memory device, the degree to which the device can be integrated depends on the size of a planar area in which the unit memory cell may be fabricated ad the spacing that can be provided between adjacent cells. And, because memory cells are constituted by patterns, the integration density that can be attained in the case of a two-dimensional memory device depends on the fineness to which the patterns can be formed. Therefore, the degree to which two-dimensional semiconductor memory devices can be integrated is limited despite the demands for higher density devices. Moreover, the high cost equipment or apparatuses required to form fine patterns imposes practical limits on manufacturers of semiconductor memory devices.